Diary of an urban shepherd

January 10, 2011

... and boy did we eat!

... if there is one thing the sheepless household does well during times of celebration - it is likely related to sustenance. Let's face it - we like to eat. I admit I am not great on the day to day business of food prep. I am from the "whaddya mean eggs aren't supper?" camp.

And so, although I am not likely to be pulling out a cookbook during the week (side labels on soup cans are fair game however) I do like to cook and bake and do all that "Julie & Julia" type stuff when I am on a stay-cation - especially if it's winter.

This year I bought 1 1/2 turkeys. One went to my mom's and the other (the half turkey) stayed home so it could be roasted up for Boxing Day leftovers and such. There are some definite pluses to the half turkey idea. First off at 9 - 10 pounds, it fits in the roaster great. You get half of everything - one leg, one wing, one breast. I usually tuck some chopped apple, carrot, celery, onion and herbs into the "half cavity" which is face down in the pan. It roasts in half the time. And the clean up? Well it's actually less than half. All the bones and scraps fit easily into a stock pot and there's a ton of broth for soups and stews. Perfect for a family of four. We ate cold 1/2 turkey sandwiches for lunch, hot 1/2 turkey sandwiches with gravy for supper, and finished off with Jamie Oliver's Leftover Turkey Leek pie (bottom right photo). The leftover's from that were frozen for later consumption (when the "whaddya mean cereal ain't supper?" line doesn't fly).

For New Year's we had a slow roasted prime rib (top left) with cracked pepper/salt rub, basted in loads of butter (after seeing Julie and Julia I won't skimp on the butter anymore) with fresh sprigs of rosemary and thyme. It was accompanied by mashed potatoes, turnips, yorkshire pudding and gravy. We finished with a freshly baked Apple Pear Pie. My made my pie crust from scratch using the Nun's Pie Crust recipe from Marty's World Famous Cookbook. This recipe is great because it's so big, it makes you move fast to get it to the desired lard-flour pea consistency without overworking it. I've made it a few times now - and it is delightfully flaky - so much so I even like it (I'm not a big pie fan).

Last but not least, I found some unique organic colourful carrots (top right) from Lund's at the market. Yes, they really are yellow, orange and purple! They were so tender and sweet that I just had to include them in my top picks.